The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Deposit checks with the iPhone

For Chase bank customers on the go, there’s one less reason to stop by an ATM.

Chase last month added a feature to its banking iPhone application enabling customers to virtually deposit a check using the smart phone’s built-in camera.

Called Quick Deposit, it requires a snapped picture of the front and back of an endorsed check, which is then submitted to Chase via the app. The amount is deposited directly into your account; Chase encourages customers to destroy the physical check as soon as it clears.

Chase isn’t the first American bank to offer mobile check deposit services, but it is the biggest thus far. Last August, USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, added a feature on its iPhone application that works much the same way as the Chase version.

The app requires an iPhone 3 or higher and is free for customers enrolled in online banking, with no cap on the number of deposits made with the feature. Customers can deposit up to $1,000 in an account in a single day, with a $3,000 monthly limit per account for deposits made using Quick Deposit.

“We know that people who use the iPhone want to use them for as many tasks as possible,” said spokesman Tom Kelly. Since the feature became available in mid-July “thousands and thousands” of existing Chase customers have downloaded the app, motivated in large part by the added deposit function, he said.